This is only about the XonX stuff you find in virtually any MMORPGs. No open world PvP here.
0. Cross server functionality is a must unless you plan on having 5 or less servers (this is probably the only thing SWTOR did wrong, unfortunately that's all you need to completely kill a game).
1. Your game isn't going to be balanced, so don't ever assume you've a balanced game to handle crazy stuff like 40 vs 40. Keep the size of the PvP matches small. You can always put some world PvP zone for the crazy guys that likes having the screen unable to update before you die.
2. There really should be something that stops bunny hopping. Collosion detection and zone of control ought to work in theory, but see any number of easy cheap fixes like autoface or omnidirectional casting as long as enemy started in front of you. Heck, in EQ1 you can cast on people behind you as long as you've them targetted, not that EQ1 was ever serious about PvP.
3. Ability to kite melee should be minimal, and melee should not auto win if they get into melee range because that just leads to very boring gameplay. You basically should assume most classes have near 100% uptime because there is just nothing fun about being crowd controlled or unable to get into melee range even if you're somehow completely unkillable.
3a. Pushback on spells should be minimal. This isn't D&D where if a spellcasting finish a spell the melee instantly dies. Something like 0.5 seconds 25% of the time is enough to encourage casting class to still want to avoid melee attacks.
3b. It'd be really cool if spells cause melee pushback somehow too for flavor, though hardly necessary for a balanced game. I always thought it's ridiculous that when you cast a fireball you get distracted if someone stabbed you, but hurling a fireball in someone's face never stops them even a little bit.
4. People hate playing healers so having a healer should NOT be an insurmountable advantage. Don't be lazy and use the default PvE healing numbers because there's like a 150% chance this won't work. Healer should be an asset but no more valuable than any other class. See SWTOR for an example of a game where if you loaded up on healers you actually have a very hard time of actually killing anybody (helps that the game match size starts out small so you have no DPS left if you loaded up on healers). While you won't necessarily lose it's pretty hard to win without killing anyone either.
5. BGs should be short and have very obvious way of letting you know that when your team has no possibilty of winning.
6. Don't cater to organized PvP in terms of gear award. If people want to be famous with the E-Sports route they should go play Starcraft. At least there's an entire nation that respects people who play Starcraft well. Nobody is ever going to be famous at even a city level for playing PvP in WoW or any other MMORPG. You can throw something there but due to rule #1, 99% of the time it just means the team that stacked more of the overpowered class of the patch is going to win and skill won't even matter. You can always throw some tournament with cash prizes (cost $ to enter) as a distraction, though I think E-Sports in general with MMORPG is dumb because it's never going to come anywhere like Starcraft due to lack of a country willing to recognize MMORPG as a national sport.
7. Twinking should be possible but not reusuable (see WoW's bound on account gear). You should not have the option to gain no XP from PvP because otherwise some crazy guy is always going to stay at level 19/29/39/49 whatever forever. Since every game from WoW on has an item generator that's done by formula and the hardest part of coming up with new items is their name, you shouldn't stop people from loading up their level 15 guys with all level 15 epics as long as they're BoP. Players could opt for an option to slow down leveling given invariably your game is going to increase the gains from PvP because people will complain it's too slow. Say the slowest pace you can possibly do is 15 BG wins per level. In a standard level 50 game where you PvP at level 10 that gives someone 600 BG wins. That ought to be enough for anybody and if not they can always start over.
0. Cross server functionality is a must unless you plan on having 5 or less servers (this is probably the only thing SWTOR did wrong, unfortunately that's all you need to completely kill a game).
1. Your game isn't going to be balanced, so don't ever assume you've a balanced game to handle crazy stuff like 40 vs 40. Keep the size of the PvP matches small. You can always put some world PvP zone for the crazy guys that likes having the screen unable to update before you die.
2. There really should be something that stops bunny hopping. Collosion detection and zone of control ought to work in theory, but see any number of easy cheap fixes like autoface or omnidirectional casting as long as enemy started in front of you. Heck, in EQ1 you can cast on people behind you as long as you've them targetted, not that EQ1 was ever serious about PvP.
3. Ability to kite melee should be minimal, and melee should not auto win if they get into melee range because that just leads to very boring gameplay. You basically should assume most classes have near 100% uptime because there is just nothing fun about being crowd controlled or unable to get into melee range even if you're somehow completely unkillable.
3a. Pushback on spells should be minimal. This isn't D&D where if a spellcasting finish a spell the melee instantly dies. Something like 0.5 seconds 25% of the time is enough to encourage casting class to still want to avoid melee attacks.
3b. It'd be really cool if spells cause melee pushback somehow too for flavor, though hardly necessary for a balanced game. I always thought it's ridiculous that when you cast a fireball you get distracted if someone stabbed you, but hurling a fireball in someone's face never stops them even a little bit.
4. People hate playing healers so having a healer should NOT be an insurmountable advantage. Don't be lazy and use the default PvE healing numbers because there's like a 150% chance this won't work. Healer should be an asset but no more valuable than any other class. See SWTOR for an example of a game where if you loaded up on healers you actually have a very hard time of actually killing anybody (helps that the game match size starts out small so you have no DPS left if you loaded up on healers). While you won't necessarily lose it's pretty hard to win without killing anyone either.
5. BGs should be short and have very obvious way of letting you know that when your team has no possibilty of winning.
6. Don't cater to organized PvP in terms of gear award. If people want to be famous with the E-Sports route they should go play Starcraft. At least there's an entire nation that respects people who play Starcraft well. Nobody is ever going to be famous at even a city level for playing PvP in WoW or any other MMORPG. You can throw something there but due to rule #1, 99% of the time it just means the team that stacked more of the overpowered class of the patch is going to win and skill won't even matter. You can always throw some tournament with cash prizes (cost $ to enter) as a distraction, though I think E-Sports in general with MMORPG is dumb because it's never going to come anywhere like Starcraft due to lack of a country willing to recognize MMORPG as a national sport.
7. Twinking should be possible but not reusuable (see WoW's bound on account gear). You should not have the option to gain no XP from PvP because otherwise some crazy guy is always going to stay at level 19/29/39/49 whatever forever. Since every game from WoW on has an item generator that's done by formula and the hardest part of coming up with new items is their name, you shouldn't stop people from loading up their level 15 guys with all level 15 epics as long as they're BoP. Players could opt for an option to slow down leveling given invariably your game is going to increase the gains from PvP because people will complain it's too slow. Say the slowest pace you can possibly do is 15 BG wins per level. In a standard level 50 game where you PvP at level 10 that gives someone 600 BG wins. That ought to be enough for anybody and if not they can always start over.
